Child of Fate by Jason Halstead Page B

tunnel
stretched ahead of them, curving slightly.
    “Only one way to go.” Trina pointed down the
passage. “That’s the way we came, though.”
    “And you ran from these people,” Alto pointed
out.
    “We didn’t see any goblins, just the Kingdom
soldiers.”
    “They aren’t Kingdom men!”
    “I know that,” Trina snapped. “But we thought
they were then.”
    “I heard the two men talking before…”
    “Before what?” Namitus asked him.
    Alto glanced behind them at the shapes in the
darkness. The two larger shapes were the men he’d killed. He took a
breath and blew it out. Yes, he’d killed two men but they were
going to kill him. He wasn’t sure how he should feel about it. He
fell back on the pragmatism he’d learned on his father’s farm and
decided he would deal with it later, when he had time. “Before they
attacked me,” he finished.
    “And what did they say?” Trina asked after
waiting a long moment for Alto to continue.
    Alto snapped his head around to look at her,
jerking himself out of the fog his mind had started to enter.
“What? Oh! Uh, they said they had to get you two back or they
couldn’t run far enough to get away from their boss.”
    “Hard to get good loyalty in a bandit these
days,” Drefan muttered.
    “But they were willing to kill you. I heard
them say that,” Trina said.
    “Why are we special?” Namitus wondered.
    “She’s the princess,” Drefan stated the
obvious.
    Patrina turned on him, a hand on one hip and
her finger pointed at him threateningly. “I’m not a princess! We
have a king, too. My father’s only the jarl. And besides, how would
they know that? We weren’t traveling with a lot of guards or any
tabards announcing who I was.”
    “You were going to see a wise-woman?” Alto
asked. Trina nodded, turning back to him. Her hand slipped off her
hip and her shoulders relaxed. “Why?”
    “It used to be tradition for every Kelgryn
coming of age to learn what their destiny held for them. It was a
time for choosing, a time when they would learn what profession
they would have. For some, it even foretold who they would marry,”
she explained. “Only the nobles continue the tradition
anymore.”
    “So you’re of age?” Alto had to ask the
question even though he knew it wasn’t relevant. He had to know and
she’d given him the perfect opportunity to ask.
    “Sixteen winters,” she said, nodding. “Young
for your Kingdom, but we’re not so sheltered along the coast.”
    Alto chuckled. “I’m sixteen,” he
admitted.
    “In the heart of the Kingdom and in other
realms to the south, life is easier. Children are spoiled and soft;
they don’t leave the nest until they’re older. Where we live, boys
and girls endure hardship and grow up early,” Drefan said between
short breaths. “So that means nobody will think twice if you bed
the girl when we get out of here, but first we need to find our way
out!”
    Alto and Trina stood with matching
expressions. Namitus wasn’t able to block his chuckle with his hand
before it slipped out. Trina punched him in the shoulder for
it.
    “So,” Alto said, recovering from the shock
and ignoring his companion. “Perhaps they did know.”
    “Know what—that I’d be coming?”
    “Yes,” he reasoned. His eyes darted back and
forth as he thought up scenarios and discarded them. “Men in
Kingdom uniforms steal you away, and we find evidence of Kelgryn
weapons at the sacking of Highpeak.”
    “Someone wants to start a war!” Namitus
blurted out.
    Trina gasped.
    “But why?” Alto asked. “Who would gain from
it?”
    “Talk it over with Kar. I’m sure he could
chew your ear off with useless trivia,” Drefan said. He coughed a
few times and then managed in a tight voice to say, “It does us no
good here.”
    Alto nodded. “You’re right. Come, let’s be on
our way.”
    Alto and Trina bumped into each other as they
started down the tunnel. They stopped and stared at each other.
Alto nearly gestured for